ME 234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Patent Office, United States Patent And Trademark Office
Document Summary
Patents are used for the protection of new products, machines, process, and new uses for improvements. Three types: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. A patent is a grant by the government of property of right to the inventor. Gives the patent holder the right to exclude others from using, making, offering for sale, selling, or importing the patented item in the us. Does not give the inventor the right to use, make, or sell the item. Patents encourage economic activities by producing a sense of protection to the inventor, and allow the individuals and institutions to feel confident enough to in the new intellectual property without fear of being copied or forced out. Most common, powerful, useful, and expensive patents. Utility: inventions must be useful, safe, and ethical. Nonobvious: the subject must be sufficiently different from the prior art to make it nonobvious to a person having ordinary skills in the subject area.
